Summary

See also

Greece

Classis-Latin means; division/class. A time period of Greece, which encompasses 500-300 BCE. This period includes high point of Athenian culture, Peloponnesian, and the defeat of Athens.

Sui Generis

Of its own kind; a way of studying antiquity in its purist form. (Going to original sources)

Myth

Credible, truth claims, authority

Fiction

No credibility, no truth claims, no authority

Legend

Truth claims

History

Truth claims, credibility

Knowledge

Socially approved statements that can be argued

Truth

Not dependent on society; is timeless and placeless and cannot be argued

Hesiod

An 8th century BCE writer in ancient Greece. Author of Theogeny.

Theogeny

A creation myth. Makes truth claims, has credibility and authority in the past.

Works and Days

Another work written by Hesiod

Cronus

Son of Uranus (God of sky) and Gaia. Cronus castrates his father, by the will of his mother.

Cronus, myth

Cronus speaks to his mother and says powerful words, which are enough to make him a myth maker.

Cottus, mythos

Leader of the 100 arms who fight against the Olympian Gods; also considered to be a myth maker because he is a powerful man. Makes a powerful speech.

Zeus

Alpha Greek God.

Anthropocentric

Gods are human like; Theogeny shows how out of the void comes these gods who begin to act human-like.

Normative

When a certain myth is believed by a social group, thus making it normative to the society.

Sophocles

496-406 BCE. A Greek Playwright

Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone

Three tragedies written by Sophocles

Psyche

Human soul

Hades

The underworld/ a place for the spirits of the dead

Charon

A man who ferried the psyche to Hades

Acheron

A river that Charon ferried psyches across to get into Hades

Obolus

A coin that was put on the eyes of the dead; meant to pay for Charon as a fee for his services.

Significance of Kreon's Pride

Because he is the lawmaker, he claims to have truth. He takes the state as more important than love because he thinks love is only possible once law is properly enforced. This is the center of the conflict in the play.

Kreon's Realization

Once Kreon realizes he has no right in making these laws he sees that because of his pride all that was important has become chaos and is now gone.